﻿HEER ON THE ANTHRACITE PLANTS OF THE ALPS. 95 



formation have disappeared. We see no more Sigillarice, no Lomato- 

 phyllece, Stigmarice, Annularice, and Asterophyllites ; the Lepido- 

 dendra are gone, and in their place the Equiseta by their abundance 

 and gigantic size form an important feature in the flora, and together 

 with Cycadece and Conifer ce constitute its principal characteristics. 



To this Triassic group follows that of the Lias, whose flora in 

 many respects reminds us of that of the Trias, and especially of 

 the Keuper, but which is wholly distinct from that of the Coal. 

 Reckoning the plants lately discovered by Fr. Braun at Culmbach, 

 near Baireuth, the Liassic species at present known amount to 145. 

 All these, without exception, are wholly different from any of the 

 Coal-period, and but very few are identical with species from the 

 Keuper. Not the species only, but the greater part of the genera, 

 nay whole families of the Coal-period had ceased to exist ; such as 

 Sigillaria, Stigmaria, and Asterophyllites. The Ferns and Equiseta 

 no more compose the forests ; the former, though still abundant, 

 appear under peculiar forms with digitated leaves and reticulated 

 venation (Sagenopteris, Camptopteris, Thaumatopteris, Laccopteris, 

 Clathropteris). As forest- trees, peculiar coniferous plants, such as 

 Araucaria, Brachyphyllum, and Palissya, with numerous Cycadece, 

 appear for the first time. 



Such was the flora of the Liassic period in the North of Germany : 

 but if the view of Elie de Beaumont be correct, at that same time in 

 our vicinity there existed a flora which not only was totally distinct 

 from it, but which exactly agreed with the incomparably older flora 

 of the Coal ; and that not merely in families and in genera, but even 

 in respect to species. We are to suppose that a member of the Coal- 

 flora had continued to exist down to the Liassic period in a broad 

 strip of land from the Isere Department in France all the way to 

 Carinthia ; or rather, since the earth had undergone so many revolu- 

 tions in the interval, we must suppose it recreated ; while during the 

 deposition of the Keuper at a much earlier period at the distance of 

 but few miles from this strip of land a totally distinct vegetation 

 flourished in the Canton of Basle, and during the formation of the 

 " Bunter Sandstein " a flora prevailed in Alsace which also was com- 

 pletely distinct from that of the Coal. According to the hypothesis, 

 we first have the Coal-flora, followed by that of the " Bunter Sand- 

 stein " and of the Keuper ; to this last succeeds that of the Lias, 

 which, in all the anthracitic districts, presents us with Carboniferous 

 plants, while in every other locality it has characters perfectly distinct 

 from the Coal and allied to the Keuper. To this Lias-flora, com- 

 posed of two such heterogeneous elements, that of the Oolite succeeds, 

 which again is intimately connected with the true Liassic flora, and 

 which, even in the Department of the Isere near the anthracitic di- 

 stricts (as Scipion Gras has shown), possesses the true distinctive cha- 

 racters of an Oolitic flora, and nothing of a Carboniferous one ! Nay 

 more — I have discovered in the lower Lias of the Canton of Aargau, 

 near Miillingen, the stem of a Cycas, associated with Insects ; which 

 proves that in our Lias also Cycadece played a part, whilst in the 

 anthracites not the slightest trace of such a form has been found. 

 If the views of that geologist were just, a member of the peculiar 



